As we move more into 2015, I thought I’d put together my own list of the more interesting Canadian privacy cases of 2014. These are judicial decisions so there’s no Commissioner findings or orders here. Some of these I’ve blogged about; others I’ve simply noted for future reference. I’ve not seen a similar list so feel […]
Throughout history, no matter what country, the scope and application of constitutional power can be best described as a “contact sport”. In Canada, the game is played by two levels of government operating under a division of power that has evolved through constitutional case law since 1867. A recent decision in Québec raises a new […]
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) issued a significant decision with respect to another piece of technology that we commonly carry on our person – mobile phones. The court in R. v. Fearon addressed whether the police can search such phones under the common law power to “search incident to a lawful arrest”. In doing so, the […]
Who knew six months could pass so quickly? The last blog post seemed like yesterday. After getting the shoulder better and renewing an intent to blog on a more regular basis, here is part 2 of the R v. Spencer blog post. In the last post, my focus was on the meaning of “lawful authority”. […]
A busy practice combined with a very bad shoulder injury will, regretfully, move blogging down the priority list. As we reach mid-2014 there have been a few interesting privacy law developments this year but, in my view, no real “blockbusters”. That all changed today. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) came out with R […]
Alberta’s PIPA was recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) in Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v. United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401. In reading the decision, the issue appears to be the broad, circular definition of “personal information” in that statute. Since a similar definition of personal information is found in the federal, BC […]
The Supreme Court of Canada issued another privacy-related decision last week. Not only is it a significant refinement of search and seizure law it is also, with apologies to Pink Floyd, another “brick in the wall” with respect to building privacy rights in the context of computing devices.
As we mark the technical end of summer, I can’t help but think that we’ve already seen the privacy case of the year. Granted we still have another three months left in 2013 but R. v. Telus has a lot going for it – especially in this increasingly “mobile” world.
The last month has seen an uptick in privacy cases worthy of consideration. The latest that I’ve gotten around to perusing is Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 v. Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd released by the Supreme Court of Canada in June. I think the case is more about arbitral precedents […]
K.T. Oslin won Best Country Vocal Performance at the 1988 Grammies for a song about three girls who grew up to be ‘80s Ladies – one of whom was a “borderline fool” who crossed that border every chance she got. While the song and, perhaps, the singer won’t be remembered today, this notion of being […]
